Wake Me Up
by lackadaisicalamaryllis
Summary: I'm not a Stranded. I'm not a Gear. I'm Violet Lyle, and I'm supposed to be a Wanderer. (Gears of War belongs solely to Epic Games)
1. feelmywaythroughthedarkness

Being a Stranded isn't ever fun. Never. The only reason most ended up as a Stranded was because they were incapable of fighting, or refused to. Except for the rare case in which they're just trying to live out the last years of their lives without any particular purpose or hopes in accomplishing anything.

Violet Lyle was one of these cases.

~.~.~.~

The broken town was dark. Pitch dark.

Blood dries dark, doesn't it?

My old COG armor boots thunked softly against the ground with each step I took. This had been a popular town, and it was (obviously) now destroyed, so, of course, there were rotting bodies and fresh dead littering the ground everywhere.

I knew a soldier.

That soldier died.

I took her armor and gun.

Does that make me a bad person? Oh well.

I don't want to belong to a squad like most of the others. I don't want to be a Stranded with nothing better to do with my life than sit around on my ass and wallow in self pity about my life with these monsters around. Therefore, I'm technically a Wanderer.

At least, that's how I look at things.

It was dangerous, being out here alone, but I'd done it so often that I'd grown accustomed to it. There wasn't much of a break, ever; in order to survive you had to sleep with one eye open.

The ground rumbled loudly about 30 feet away and I instantly lunged into the dark safety of an alleyway, hiding against the wall of one of the buildings, readying my Lancer- the gun I'd taken from the dead soldier I knew.

Shots rang out into the air and the clang of bullets hitting brick, concrete, metal, and glass, made me cringe.

Then, I heard the voices. The actually human voices. They were all male, the most distinct-sounding one being a deep voice that shouted out, "That's what I'm talkin' about baby!"

Because it sparked my interest as to who these people were, I ducked my head out from behind the wall in an attempt to take a better glance at them all, but I was quickly met with the face of a Locust, which invoked a small and sharp scream from me, before I lunged out of the alleyway towards the right and did a small roll to avoid a few bullets that narrowly skimmed past my ear.

Shooting and fighting were two things that I prided myself upon. They were the main reasons I'd been able to survive this long.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, sliding against a broken wall that was still about a foot and a half tall, blind firing over it around the area that I knew the Locusts were positioned at.

From the corner of my eye I could see a group of about four men, watching me and the Locusts for a moment, before two of them began to fire as well, one threw a frag into the Emergence hole that the Locusts dispersed from, and the last was shouting orders into his earpiece for anyone else to hear.

I stood for a moment, aiming now and firing at the head of the creature until my bullets met their mark and it flung backwards, struggling on he ground, half dead. Quickly, before it was able to regain itself, I jumped over to the wall and jammed my foot into its skull, curb-stomping it. The strangers had managed to take out quite a few, and apparently when I was blind firing, I'd killed a few as well. They were all dead now.

"Well that was showoff-ish at _all_, now was it?" One of the guys called in a sarcastic tone. I don't think I could've moved faster, spinning around and training my Lancer on them. The one that had spoken had spiky blonde hair and was pale white. The male beside him was probably the most muscular man I'd ever seen, and was darker skinned, his gun slung over his shoulder again, although the blonde and one of the other ones, who wore some type of covering on his head, already had their guns aimed at me. The last was tanned, and was holding his gun, although it wasn't aimed at anything.

"Who're you?" The one with the hat like thing asked me. "You don't look like any Gear I recognize."

"Oh, hm, maybe that's because I'm not one?" I rolled my eyes, raising an eyebrow although I never moved my gun.

"Ooh, this one's sassy. Fenix I like her can we keep her?" The darker-skinned man laughed, his laughter booming through the part of the city we were in.

"Wait, if you're not a COG soldier, than where the hell did you get the armor?" The blonde asked, tilting his gun down. The other did the same as well, and if they were expecting me to put down my gun then boy, were they dead wrong.

"Out of an Emergence hole, next time you see one why don't you go check for more?" I snapped. I shouldn't have to answer them.

"Well damn Baird, she's got you there," the tanned man chuckled. My lips tilted up in a ghost of a smile, and the blonde, 'Baird', shook his head and scowled at me.

"But seriously," dark-skinned asked, "What's your name? I'm Cole. You know, like 'Cole Train'? The thrashball pla-"

"Oh great," Baird muttered, "here we go again." I watched as Cole jabbed his elbow into Baird's side. My Lancer lowered to my hip as I looked at the other two.

"Marcus Fenix. And that's Dom Santiago. And don't let the others fool you, Baird's name is Damon and Cole's is Augustus." The one with the hat said in his gruff voice again.

"Lyle." I answered.

"First name, blondie," Cole said, smirking.

"..Violet."

Baird threw his Lancer back on his shoulder and clapped his hands together. "Kay well it was somewhat mildly okay seeing you but we're gonna get going, come on guys, before she morphs into a Reaver or Locust or something." He mumbled, turning to start walking away, but Cole clapped a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. Fenix turned to them, along with Dom, and the four of them talked for a moment. During that moment, I turned, my Lancer on my shoulder with use of the strap I'd attached to it, and began to walk off, stepping over the bodies of the creatures sent to kill.

It was about five minutes, and I'd begun to collect ammunition from the Locusts guns, when Cole called me back over, "Hey, Violet, baby where you think you're going?"

"Places," I called back, straightening up. Baird scoffed, rolling his eyes as he looked at me.

"You ain't goin' nowhere," Cole called, "you gotta come with us."

"Nah." I smirked, turning towards a building that was still mostly standing, and walking inside in search of anything useful.

"Hey Violet!" Dom called over now. "It's mandatory! Orders from Command. It's not your COG armor or gun." I stiffened and backed up, craning my neck around the pillar of the building.

"It was my sister's. Does that count?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at them all.

"Nope!" Baird said, popping the 'p'.

"Wow, okay, I feel as though my relationship with the four of you is going to be greeeaaat." I mumbled sarcastically, sulking over to them, my arms crossed over my chest.

"What now?" I said, narrowing my eyes at them through the mask that was connected to a type of helmet on my shield-suit.

"Now," Marcus said, "we hop on a King Raven and get the hell out of here."

~.~.~.~

My hands instantly went up to cover my ears against the loud whirring of the Raven as we soared through the air, my elbows on my knees while I leaned forward. Dom sat on my left side, Cole on my other, Baird across from me, and Fenix on the left side of him. I'd been silent the entire time, and that's how I wanted to be. There were reasons I didn't like or want to be a Gear soldier. It was getting hot in my mask so I flipped it upwards and just pulled my helmet off, holding it in my lap now.

My blonde and blue hair fell over my shoulders, covering part of my right eye as I took it out of my hairtie.

"Your hair's blue," Baird called over the sound of the loud rotors.

"Yeah. And blonde." I answered, rolling my eyes.

"Who the hell dyes their hair blue?"

"When the hell did you give birth to me?"

"Shit you're just a complete bit-" Baird started, but Cole cut him off with, "Ladies, ladies, please, save the fighting for the enemy, please?"

I huffed, going back to trying to relax on such a tense ride. The plan I had was going pretty well, and then Fenix shouted.

"Reavers!"

"Great." I mumbled.

"Dom, Cole, man the turrets, Baird and Violet, you two fire with your own guns."

I gave a slight nod and moved to kneel on the floor in the opening of the Raven, aiming at every darkened creature in the sky. Baird took the other side, doing the same as I did, and the four of us fired, the sound of the shots ringing in my ears. Fenix stood in the center of us all, watching over us and helping us reload when we ran out. A single Reaver rammed into the side of King Raven that I was on, and it tipped sideways, throwing me back into Baird, who spun around at the last second and barred me off from falling with his arm. I winced as his arm hit my ribs and he simply waited for the King Raven to straighten itself before moving his arm and standing up.

"How many more are there?" He asked Fenix, while I managed to stand up without falling.

"Two just passed us but they'll turn back around for us again." He answered, readying his gun. I stopped for a moment to reload my Lancer, pressing a clip into it before staying towards the center of the aircraft in an attempt to avoid falling on someone if necessary. The Reavers ended up coming around again and Baird was the one to shoot them down, and then we all found our seats once again. He shot me a glare and muttered, "Watch where you fall next time."

"Oh, I'm so sorry you and your little COG friends can't control a damn Reaver," I hissed back, and I'm pretty sure he was the only one able to hear me, because he's the only one that reacted.

"How about after this you just go back to living on the streets with the rest of the Stranded, since you're so grateful of everything we're all doing." He answered and narrowed his eyes.

"What exactly _are_ you guys doing to fix this problem?" I smirked, realizing he had nothing to say to that.

~.~.~.~

The building towered above me and the others, and as Fenix and Dom led me inside, I felt a bit of intimidation as to what was going to come next.

As soon as I entered the building, a few men covered head to toe in complete suits, with masks like mine, immediately took my gun, and my mask. I frowned, glaring at them, before Dom urged me forward towards the center of the room, in front of a tall balcony, where what looked like a jury was standing, one man in the center. "You," he said, "you're Violet Lyle?

"That's my name." I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms.

"Your sister was Juliette Lyle, correct?"

"She's still my sister."

"She's deceased."

"Just because she's dead doesn't make her any less of my family, thank you very much," I gritted my teeth together.

"I apologize if I have caused you any offense," he said, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Well you did, apology not accepted."

He paused for a moment, and I knew my comments were getting to him, which was exactly what I wanted. Eventually, he muttered, "you've got quite the mouth on you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, "save it. Now if we're done here, I'd like to get back to the sliver of life I still have?"

There was the sound of a few people trying to hold in laughter behind me and I turned my head to see Baird bent over, covering his mouth, and Dom leaning on him slightly, also covering his mouth. Fenix stayed emotionless, as usual, and Cole hadn't returned yet. When I turned back to look at the man again, he definitely didn't look happy, and I smirked.

Then he decided to continue. "So, that was Juliette's Lancer we confiscated, and I presume that's her armor as well. Do you have her COG tags on you, ma'am?"

"Well.. yeah.." I answered, fumbling to pull the tags out from under my shirt. Someone in one of the suits came by and snatched them from my hands, walking up the stairs towards the balcony.

"Um, excuse me, but those are mine," I ground out through gritted teeth, my fists curled at my sides.

"These no longer belong to you, they're prop-"

"They're_ fucking_ mine if I say they're mine so you'd best give the_ goddamn_ tags back to me if you want to keep your _fucking_ head on your _fucking_ neck." I said, my voice now raising to a shout as I glared up at him.

"Ma'am, would you please calm do-"

"No. No, I won't. Was your sister torn to pieces a week ago in front of your own eyes? No, I don't fucking think so. Those tags are the only actual piece of material I still own that has any record of her." I kept shouting.

"And that's such a shame. Juliette was a wonderful gear."

"Give me the tags back now, Prescott."

"Oh, so you know my name?" His eyebrows went up.

"I know everyone's name! I know everything about this place! I know the past missions, I know the future missions. I know so much I could _ruin you._"

"Hey, hey, hey," Cole's voice boomed as he walked in behind Fenix and Baird. "What's going on here?"

"Prescott took Blondie's sister's COG tags." Baird answered. He was trying to whisper, but I could still hear him.

"It's required that you give us back the body armor you're wearing as well," Prescott said. I shook my head.

"If you can make me step out of this armor, you can have it."

Baird let out a snort.

"Ma'am, just step out of the armor."

"Make me, bitch."

"Ma'am."

"Bitch?"

"Miss Lyle."

When I turned around to attempt to get one of the guys to back me up, Baird and Dom were on the ground laughing, and even Marcus was smiling slightly.

There was a long pause before Cole chimed in, "Prescott, what if she joined Delta?"


	2. guidedbyabeatingheart

**A/N: so I'm probably going to screw this up guys. I'm sorry if I get shit wrong. I love the games, hell yeah, but when it comes to focusing on the background of the storyline for the game my brain just goes...bluh. so yeah sorry. ok yea I know I screwed some shit up with the whole loomis thing but trust me ill kill him off soon so please just go along with it I swear itll get better xD  
and thanks for the reviews already! c:**

**xxx- tay**

* * *

"Join Delta Squad? Are you kidding, Cole? We can't have this.. _thing_ on Delta Squad with us!" Baird exclaimed, jumping up and motioning at me. I feigned hurting, and then rolled my eyes, "As if I want to be part of the COG."

"So you're a Stranded?" Prescott asked.

I whipped my head around to glare at him. "I most certainly am not."

"Then what does that make you?" Dom asked me.

"I dunno.. a Wanderer or something?"

"Wanderer?" Baird scoffed. "Wow, you get weirder and weirder by the minute." I rolled my eyes and shot a glare at Cole for the idea of me joining their little squad. He simply shrugged and turned his attention back to Prescott, a questioning look on his face, waiting for an answer.

"I suppose.. Considering how great of a soldier her sister was, perhaps if she can prove herself she can stick with Delta," Prescott finally said after a long pause. Baird let out a loud groan behind me and I whipped my head around to glare.

"Wow, you complain a lot." I called to him, shaking my head and looking back ahead of myself. "I've got nothing to prove to you or anyone el-"

"You will accompany Delta Squad to deploy the resonator." He said, "and if you are successful in surviving that mission and keeping the majority of the team alive, you will stay on Delta Squad with the others. You leave in one hour. Dismissed."

"Wa-"

"Dismissed!"

~.~.~.~

I let out a sigh as I packed a new clip into the Lancer they gave back to me, and pulled both Juliette's old COG tags and my new ones around my neck. They clattered slightly as I shifted, putting my helmet and mask back on. I tilted my head upwards to get a look around and laughed when I saw Cole arguing with Baird. Standing up, I walked over to them, and saw that Fenix was also standing there, trying to give instructions and failing because of their arguing. Dom simply stood next to Fenix, watching and laughing.

"Hey," I said, motioning them apart. "Chill."

"Okay," Fenix began, "Lyle will be with us for a little while. Lyle, you know the four of us, so there's no need for introduction. Let's go."

The older man gave a slight nod, although didn't say anything or make a change in expression. I nodded back, and listened as he directed us to the King Raven that would be dropping us off by the Lethia Imulsion Factory. I strapped the belt around my waist as I sat one of the seats. Baird sat on my left side, Cole on my right, and Fenix across from Cole, and Dom beside him.

I gripped the handle of my Lancer, a bit nervous myself. I glanced around at the rest of them and saw their eased expressions, and hoped they couldn't see my terrified face through my mask.

Sure, I was used to fighting and shooting, but I'd never had a purpose in doing it. Now we needed to deploy a resonator, and I needed to keep myself alive and hope that not everyone else dies.

"You ready for this, little rookie?" Cole asked me, giving me a slight nod.

I tensed a bit and shrugged. "Apparently."

Baird scoffed beside me and I shot him a look. "What was that, _Damon_?" He cocked his head to the side.

"That was the sound of me not believing that you're going to survive any of this." He answered with a smirk.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'll survive." I sneered.

"Well if you're anything like your sister.." he laughed.

My eyes widened and I turned my head back to look ahead of me. "I don't think you know when to close your mouth, do you?"

"Why, what are you going to do? Shake me to death or something?" He scoffed again, referring to the fact that I was so scared I was shaking slightly.

"Enough," Fenix butted in.

I ignored him. "You know, a bullet to the head usually kills a person."

"No shit, Sherlock, thanks for the useful information that no one on this thing kn-"

"Baird!" Fenix snapped. "I said that's enough, both of you."

"Wow, who the hell died and made you my father?" I asked him, rolling my eyes and slumping back slightly in my seat, thinking for a moment and trying to calm my nerves. What he'd said about my sister had gotten to me quite a bit. I kept playing over thoughts about Juliette in the back of my mind, spacing out until I felt Baird push me forward. "Come on," he said roughly, "ya can't sit there the entire time, we've got places to go."

I jumped slightly, then realized we'd landed and unstrapped the belt, picking up my Lancer as I stood and started to step off the KR. I glanced back to notice the funny look he watched me with. He seemed confused or a bit weirded out.

"What, Corporal?" I snapped. "Ya can't just stand there the entire time, we've got places to go." Then I turned around and began to jog over to Fenix, Dom, and Cole, who were directing around with their hands and talking.

"Where to next?" I asked them, walking up. Dom motioned towards a few trees. "They've dropped off a Centaur somewhere over here but they're unsure exactly where at," he spoke.

"Well then why don't we go find it?" I suggested.

"Wretches. Boomers. Locust. Creatures. Monsters. Things that will _kill_ us, Lyle," Baird rolled his eyes at me as he walked up.

"And if we stand here long enough, something will come along and kill us," I answered, ticked off at him already for the day. It was growing dark outside, which meant it'd get dangerous out faster.

The loud screeching of a creature made me cringe sharply and I watches as a glowing Wretch scrambled up a tree, only to jump off the branch near us. Dom was quick to butt it in the head with the end of his Lancer and I let out a breath of air I hadn't known I was holding in. The King Raven began to pick up again, taking off into the air. It wasn't here to stay, sadly, and now there was no going back on my deal with Prescott.

It took a moment, but then the Wretch promptly exploded, splattering its blood everywhere. I gagged slightly, shaking my head and looking at the others. "Are we going to find the Centaur or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, fine," Fenix muttered, beginning to walk past some of the trees and into what looked like some woods. The rest of us followed suit, guns readied in case we needed them.

"Over there," he pointed, and we saw the giant hulk of metal, sitting there doing nothing. Jogging over, it opened up and we all slipped inside.

"Who's driving, because I'm not," Dom said. I shook my head, "me either."

"Well I ain't doin' it!" Cole exclaimed loudly.

"You can count me out. I'm only hear in case of repairs," he shrugged, taking a seat in one of the many, Cole sitting beside him. Fenix took the wheel and started the Centaur up, with Dom sitting beside him. I sat away from them all, falling back into my thoughts once again and screwing around with my Lancer, occasionally checking it over and over again to see if it was loaded, which it always was.

" 'Ey, blondie, what's up?" Cole called up to me, and I couldn't even hear it at first- well, I could, but it didn't click in my mind until a minute or two later, when Baird added, "yo, what's your problem?"

"Nothing." I didn't look at them.

"Well, something's on your mind." Dom piped up now.

"Yeah, a lot of things are on my mind."

"And they are?" Baird questioned, his tone annoyed.

"Why do _you_ even care?" I asked, now turning to look at him. "Are you gonna bring up my dead sister again? Tell me I'm going to end up like her? As if the sheer fear of all of this wasn't enough anyway, you had to go ahead and remind me that I'm probably going to die." My voice was calm for once, and I saw his eyes widen slightly as I said it all, then turned ahead of myself again.

Everyone was silent for a while, until bullets started smashing against the metal sides of the Centaur.

"Brumak!" Fenix exclaimed, stopping the Centaur. We were near the Imulsion Factory already.

"Great. Just great." I muttered, standing out of my seat and grabbing my Lancer. Cole, Fenix, and Dom had already left, but Baird stopped me by grabbing my shoulder.

"Listen." He said.

"What do you want?" I snapped, glaring at him.

He opened his mouth to speak, and then promptly shut it. And then opened it again. "I didn't mean you're going to die."

"Yeah, well that's what you said."

"But that's not what I mea-"

"It doesn't matter. You're probably right anyway." And I yanked my arm away from him and went outside to help defend against he Brumak.


	3. can'ttellyouwherethejourneywillend

**a/n: this is so not storyline omfg im sorry guys please just go along with it and like  
yeah im sorry I just needed to find away to incorporate Violet into Delta and just gbfdkhbsekfd agh sorry sorry sorry**

* * *

I stared at the huge beast ahead of us, with the smaller, yet still equally dangerous creatures gathered around it.

My Lancer was up in my arms and aimed at the Brumak before anyone else's, I noticed that, and I fired rapidly at it instantly, acting on instinct. Just what Juliette had taught me.,"Move!" Dom shouted, as the Brumak began firing at anything that moved and wasn't its fellow fighters, but I was already ahead of him, and slid against a broken piece of wall, using it as cover, a grin plastered over my face. It was a bit fun, when you weren't thinking about getting killed, and considering I'd been the first to shoot, it made me feel a little bit triumphant.

"Ease up, Cadet!" Fenix called, and for a moment, it took me to realize he was talking to me, and I noticed I was getting awefully close to the Brumak, whom we hadn't yet been able to kill. Ducking behind another remnant of a building, I called back, "I'll be fine!" Cole had begun making his way towards the Brumak himself, and I watched for a moment as he revved up his chainsaw bayonet against the neck of a Locust, splaying blood and body parts around everywhere. The bayonet was the one thing I hadn't figured out with my Lancer, and I was a bit scared to test it out just yet.

Dom and Baird came up as well eventually, with Fenix staying behind a bit with his Gnasher Shotgun. We made sure the Locusts had all dropped, before the five of us turned our attention to the Brumak, and began firing at it simultaneously.

Like a team.

"Keep it going, Delta!" Marcus shouted over the sound of the shots, and then I heard the click of an empty gun. I had to reload, and the Brumak was getting way too close for comfort.

I tried to walk and slam in a clip at the same time, and failed a couple times, but then stopped walking and jammed it in quickly. The Brumak was walking towards me, with Cole, Baird, and Dom firing at it from behind, although Baird and Dom were trying to reload, and Fenix trying to get an aim at it from the front.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, backing up against the wall of the entrance to the Imulsion Factory. My gun was jammed from trying to hit clips into it so much, and I was aimlessly trying to shoot at the Brumak as it neared me. What would it take to kill this thing?

It held up its gun and I swear I cringed back, ducking my head behind my knees because I was almost 100% certain this thing was going to kill me.

"Violet!" Cole shouted, but was almost drowned out by the sound of Baird screaming at the Brumak, "Hey dumbass! Over here! Over here!" My heart pounded in my chest and I was _just_ lucky enough that it spun to the side to look at Baird, who had an new Breechshot aimed at its head. I worked to yank out the jammed clip from my Lancer and replaced it again, more slowly this time. By the time I had finished, he had shot it twice with the Breechshot, and it had fallen down, dead.

My body trembled as I stood up, picking up my Lancer and looking at Baird. He met my glance and nodded slightly, almost unseen. He held the look for a moment, before Cole spoke and we both snapped our heads towards him. "And here I was thinking you guys were going to kill each other. Picking up that Breechshot was a good idea, Damon."

I glanced back at Baird, and realized what had happened. "That was the most stupid thing a person could've done," I snapped at him. "You didn't even have the gun in your hand when you screamed at him, did you? Dumbass."

"You're so welcome for saving your ass out there," He threw his hands up, obviously exasperated.

"I got lucky you're so loud that you scared the thing." My voice was strained, and angry. He made me seem like a fool that couldn't take care of myself, when it was obvious that I'd been able to this entire time.

"You know, you could be a little more grateful, considering you could've died," he snapped. "What, do you _want_ to prove me right or something?"

"Anything but, Corporal, we couldn't have your head swell any more or else it might explode."

Cole sighed. "Well, we _were_ having a sweet moment. I take back the thing about y'all not wanting to kill each other."

"It's not my fault she's so ungrateful!" Baird exclaimed.

"It's not my fault he's so stupid!" I said as well.

"Listen," Marcus butted in, "we need to get moving, so if you two could stop fighting like a married couple, I'd like to get on with our mission."

"Oh shut up," Baird mumbled, walking towards the gate and revving his bayonet against it, cracking it open. It was the first time I'd heard Baird blatantly disrespect Fenix.

~.~.~.~

There were so many bloodied and dead bodies lying around the place, and the scent of them rotting almost made me choke. I quickly pulled my helmet and mask off and stepped to the side, pulling my hair back as I vomited onto a patch of dirt. It was all so sickening.

When I looked up and wiped my mouth off on my arm, I caught Baird staring at me. He almost seemed like he pitied me, for that moment that I was looking at him, and then he quickly turned his head away, staring ahead of us all as Fenix called to everyone, "There's going to be a lot of them. Dom, Cole, you come with me, and we'll go left, Baird and Lyl-"

"I swear if you pair me up with him I will shoot myself right here, right now!" I exclaimed, frustrated.

"Baird and Lyle, you guys go right."

"I might just shoot him instead, ya know.." I muttered to myself, glaring at the male blonde, who was already glaring back.

"Well considering you seem to have a death wish, I might shoot you first.." He answered, and I rolled my eyes, walking towards the right. He followed suit, and after walking about five minutes, Fenix commed in through the ear pieces. The noise scared the shit out of me and caused me to scream slightly, mostly because I had completely forgotten I was even wearing one.

"How are you two holding up?" He commed.

My hand went up to hold the button on the piece, and, before Baird could answer for himself, I said, "Since he hasn't spoken, for once I'd say we're holding up well."

"Ha," Baird mumbled under his breath, "You're so funny I can't stand it. Or you."

I pulled my finger off the com button and turned to look at him. "Listen to me for one second. Shut your goddamned mouth and just listen. You've got a problem with me, yeah, I get it, and I've got a problem with you, too, but you need to get over it for a few hours so we can finish this stupid little mission you and your dumb COG leader and his little soldiers set up, okay?"

He stared at me for a minute, before shoving me aside and walking past me. I winced as my elbow hit a wall, and began following behind him, although keeping my distance.

"Here's the thing, _sweetheart_, you aren't a COG soldier. You're a Stranded. _You don't belong here._ You belong back with your pathetic little friends who are too much of cowards to come out here and fight, and leave the hard jobs for the rest of us to do," he snapped after a while, spinning sharply to stare at me, as we both stopped for a moment.

I let out a loud, cold laugh, and scoffed at him. "You're so clueless! It's hilarious! Did they really brainwash you all to believe that?"

"You know it's true," he growled. I turned serious now.

"No, Damon, it's not. None of what you just said is true. You have the easiest fucking job out there. You get to kill your problems. Those Stranded? Not so lucky as you. They have absolutely no support. No weapons. If they get ambushed, they die. If you get ambushed, you have all your Gears to stand there and shoot those things dead. They've got children, and parents, or wives or husbands, that they work to keep safe with their bare hands. I'd like to see you put down your goddamned gun and go out there and kill one of those things with your hands. Without armor on. Try it. Being a Stranded isn't all that glamorous, trust me," I hissed at him, narrowing my eyes.

"I can't believe you side with them!" He shouted at me. "They're cowards!"

"Oh really?" I asked, calming myself. "Because look at me. Have I been acting like much of a coward? Did Juliette act like a coward? Because we were both two of the Stranded."

"You know that's not what I me-"

"It's never what you mean, is it?"

"Violet, I wasn't targeting the two of y-"

"Was she a coward when she died." I demanded suddenly, unable to stop myself from asking.

He tensed his jaw, frustrated. "What does it matter?"

"Was she a coward!" I shouted.

"Yes!" He answered, cringing slightly like I was going to shoot him or something. "Yes. She was running away from a fight. That's what everyone on Omega Squad was saying when they told the rest of us how she died."

I reached up and found Juliette's COG tags, snapping them off my neck and throwing them on the ground. "Then I shouldn't even be here. She was a coward, and she was a Stranded. I'm a coward. I shouldn't be here." I stormed past him now, looking around for wherever it was we were trying to get to.

"You're supposed to be turning on the lights. Not arguing," Cole commed in. "We can hear you two shouting all the way over on the other side of the place."

My hand reached up to jam against the earpiece. "Great. Now mind your own business, we're trying to complete a mission here."

"Are you Violet, or Damon?" He asked, sarcastically.

I didn't even bother answering.

We were under a type of roof covering, but it started to storm outside.

"Come on," I said to him, "we need to find the lighting and turn it on."

"Okay." His voice was quiet as he walked ahead of me and for a moment I expected a snappy insult from him, and I was surprised when I got none. Maybe I'd gotten my point through to him.

But, then again, I suppose he was right. At least, about the part about me not belonging here. I really didn't.

The ground rumbled loudly beneath my feet at one point and I felt it began to crackle and break. With a small scream, I lunged out of the way, and unfortunately I hit my head pretty damn hard against a wall by accident in the process.

"Violet!" I heard him exclaim suddenly, and as I was rubbing my head, he gripped me by the shoulders and pulled me behind a cover.

"Are you okay?" He asked. I opened my mouth, but didn't answer? Was I okay? Wait, who was talking to me?

"Lyle. How many fingers am I holding up?" He asked. Then I realized it was Baird, but I couldn't exactly see him at all. I couldn't see very much of anything.

"Eleven," I muttered, "now let up, I'm fine," I lied, my hand finding his arm and using it to push myself up and spin around, before quickly ducking when I heard broken words of, "BOOM".

"Boomer!" Baird exclaimed.

"No shit!" I snapped, leaning my shoulder against the wall as I tried to get a good aim at any creature. It took a minute, but I could finally focus my sight, and I narrowed down on a Boomer. There were three, and some weird, small creature with an orange back.

"The hell is that?" I asked, letting my Lancer fire at the Boomer I had aimed at, and occasionally ducking down when one aimed at me.

"It's a Ticker," he answered. "Nasty little bitches, just watch." The small creature scuttled up to him and promptly lit small flames on its back, which is when Baird kicked it back towards the Boomers, and it exploded. I gave a slight nod, firing at the Boomer again until it dropped onto the ground, then moved to the next one, which is when I ran out of ammunition.

"Baird, your turn," I said, glancing at him nervously. He nodded and began to shoot at them both, then stopped for a moment and handed me a Hammerburst that he carried on his back. I nodded in appreciation and began to fire at the third one, and when his dropped dead, he helped as well, killing the third and final Boomer.

I let out a sigh of relief and slumped down against the wall, flipping my mask up. It was still difficult to see, and my head felt like it would burst. I also felt really nauseas.

He looked at me, kneeling in front of me. "How many fingers?" He asked, holding his hand up. I counted four.

He pressed his hand to his earpiece. "We're gonna be a bit late, I'm pretty sure she has a concussion."

"I'm fin-" I couldn't finish, because I curled in on myself and vomited onto the ground left of me.

"She's got a concussion," He repeated quietly, sitting down in front of me and pulling my mask and helmet off. "I've got to make sure you're not bleeding, so don't move." I said nothing and waited while he moved my hair around, trying to see if I was bleeding. I wasn't, and next he had me lay back. I did so after moving away from the spot I'd vomited at.

He pulled a flashlight from his belt and shined it in my eyes, moving it around. I trained my eyes on the bright light.

"Are you feeling okay?" He asked.

"Do I look like I'm feeling okay to you?"

"Well at least you're responding."

I moved to sit up, but he stopped me. "You should probably rest for a moment."

"Eh, there's plenty of time to rest when I'm dead, now come on, help me up." I gave a small grin.

* * *

**a/n: wow two updates in one day i'm surprised with myself  
anyway, i'm going back to school in about two days so tomorrow might be the last time I update until saturday  
prepare for like 3 updates tomorrow bc ive got inspiration hella yes.**


	4. butiknowwheretostart

**a/n: ok this chapter and the next few are going to be somewhat like the actual game itself for once xD**

* * *

"I think the lighting will be up here," I said, motioning to the door labeled "Power", rather than the dark hallway Baird was about to turn down.

"Well yeah," he mumbled, looking at the door, "but what's the fun in that?"

I let out a small laugh, then let out a groan and held my head with my free hand, my other arm slung around his neck so he could help me walk. His idea, not mine.

Well, originally, his idea had been to throw me over his shoulder and carry me all the way to the power room, but after me vomiting again and him almost dropping me quite a few times, I came up with this as the solution.

"Alrighty, come on Blondie," I told him, "don't get your panties in a twist."

"Eh, shut up," he mumbled, rolling his eyes as he attempted to get the door to the power room open, failing miserably each time.

"It's locked, dumbass." I said, raising an eyebrow. I watched as his pale skin flushed a light red and he blushed, before nodding.

"I knew that." He lifted his foot and kicked the door in, and I watched as it flung backwards. He was pretty strong. Baird led me to this seat that was at what looked like a control panel and motioned for me to sit.

"I may be a genius," he said, "but this is going to take me a minute." He flipped his goggles over his forehead and placed my helmet and mask on the ground beside my seat before ducking under the counter-like thing and working on some wires.

And soon, he managed to trigger a blaring alarm.

He swore rapidly, and I called out over the noise, "Damon, you're going to attract the Wretches," readying the Hammerburst, just in case.

And boy, did I need it.

The screeching sound from the door to the power room caused me to fall backwards out of my seat, and it didn't help that I was still really dizzy. The creatures lunged towards us and Baird took a moment to push me under the counter, quickly grabbing my Hammerburst and slamming the barrel into the Wretches' skulls, one by one. They each exploded after he kicked them away.

After a few minutes, he got up, and slammed his hand down on a now-glowing-yellow button.

It took a moment, but soon all the lights began to flicker on and the alarm died down. "We did it!" I exclaimed happily, jumping up and slinging my arms around his neck. He stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and hugged back, letting out a small laugh.

"I guess we did," he laughed, and then I let go, peering around the side of the counter to make sure everything was safe for the time being.

"Now what?" I asked, glancing back at him.

"To hell if I know." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and pressed my finger to my earpiece and commed in, "Fenix, where do we go now?"

It was static-y, but he answered, "Find your way to meet us by the train."

I glanced back to Baird. "Come on, genius, where's the train?" I asked, attempting to stand up, and almost fell a few times.

"Are you sure you don't want to like, wait a minute or something? So you can, oh, I don't know, _rest_?"

"I told you," I smirked at him, "there's plenty of time to rest when I'm dead."

Baird slung my arm across his shoulders again and began to walk, and I used him to help me walk once more. "Will you quit talking like that?" He muttered, and I glanced at him, still smirking.

"Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because you're making me feel bad."

"It's not my fault you told me I'm going to die."ea

"I didn't mean it!" He exclaimed suddenly, and I clapped a hand over his mouth.

"First of all, keep it down, and second, it's not a big deal. I know I'm gonna die, no one had to tell me that." I said, my voice surprisingly quiet.

"Well obviously, if you haven't died yet, you're gonna be fin- shit."

"What?" I asked.

"We've got to go through the sewers to get to the train."

* * *

"Yeah no, I'm not doing this," I said, standing away. He'd already stepped in the water, and I was trying my hardest not to vomit everywhere due to the smell. Baird rolled his eyes at me.

"Come on, we have to go sometime!" He exclaimed, motioning forward.

"I'm not stepping in that."

"Violet."

"Nope." I shook my head and he let out a groan, moving his gun into one of his arms and turning his back to me.

I grinned and wrapped my arms around his neck and hopped up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He gripped under my knee with his free hand, carrying me piggy-back.

We went in silence for a few minutes, until Fenix commed into Control asking what our position was, and Baird asked me to hit the button on his earpiece. I did so, and he called over it, "There's shit everywhere!" I let out a laugh and added, "he's the only one that has to walk in it."

Cole took a moment to answer, laughing, "Aw, is Damon carryin' you?"

"He is, I'm just as surprised as you," I smirked.

"Only because she's being such a girl that she won't step in it at all." He mumbled, rolling his eyes. I took my finger off the com and glanced around the darkness, trying to ignore the bad smell.

"So.." He said.

"So..?"

"What was it like for you before this entire thing started?" Baird asked after a while, and I knew he was just trying to make conversation. I let out a small sigh and shrugged.

"Same as this sewer, full of shit." I gave a small laugh, and he chuckled softly.

"Like what?" He asked. I shrugged again. "When me and Juliette were little, and I mean really little, like I was six and she was eleven, there was this huge fire at the building my mom and dad worked at, and they died. So our grandparents had to take care of us, who each died two years later, three months apart. Then we had no other family and we ended up living on the streets for about nine to ten years. When I was nineteen, I moved in with my boyfriend, who was killed a year later. That was after this happened. Juliette had left to join everyone in COG and I didn't see her for a while, until I turned about 23 and she started coming back to see me. That lasted for a year, and then she died somehow, I found her body, and here I am, in her same exact position."

"Sorry to hear all that." He said quietly, and I laughed.

"So is everyone else." I answered, looking around. There was a glowing coming from around the bend inside the sewer, and it was getting closer. I quickly jumped down, ignoring the fact that I was now standing in sewer water, and pulled the Hammerburst from off my back, reloading it.

Baird shot me a look but I held my finger up to my lips, signalling for him to be quiet. He did so, and the two of us proceeded to round the corner, and that's when we saw a mass of about 15-20 Wretches, who gave ear-splitting screams and started lunging at us. I fired rapidly, not even aiming, and just tried to get them away from me. Each one lit up every few seconds, and, after dying, exploded, throwing its body parts around. I shook my head slightly, firing at the next one, and the one after that. Baird caught me by the elbow and pulled me back as he threw a frag into the lot of them, and I ducked my head down behind his arm as it burst, exploding in the sewer.

I cringed slightly at the sound, with Baird keeping me behind him. I needed to reload already, and he was getting to the point where I knew he would too.

"Just hit them in the head, really hard!" He called over the sound of the creatures' screeching.

I nodded and eased out from behind him, swinging the barrel of the Hammerburst into the skull of a Wretch. Its claws scraped down my arm before I could rip away and duck when it exploded. The new, bleeding wound stung and burned every time I touched it to something, and I hissed in pain before going back to hitting different Wretches. When they'd all dropped down dead, I glanced at Baird, who was already walking towards me.

"How bad is it?" He asked. I looked down at my arm and watched blood drip down it.

"Not that bad. I'll be okay for a while," I said, looking back up to see his worried face.

"I'll be okay," I reassured him with a small smile, before starting to walk again. But I wasn't okay. Not really.

I kept wondering how I would die.

When I would die.

He was right.

The chances of me living were slimmer than anything.

And that was a bit scary to think about.


End file.
